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Ghost Dog

(16,881 posts)
Tue Jan 14, 2020, 10:18 AM Jan 2020

Trump's reckless rampage quickens Rapture

by Amed Khan

... The impeachment-fearing president - a permanent foreign policy novice - proudly understands nothing about the region, its politics, or its religions.

That means that like Bush before him, Trump remains susceptible to manipulation from top advisers who have larger plans. Just as Bush got steered down the road of Iraqi ruin by Dick Cheney, who kept one eye on his Halliburton stock, as well as a flock of neoconservatives who remained committed to their decades-long plot of Iraqi regime change, Trump's advisers on Iran include key players like Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Vice President Mike Pence.

Both believe there is a battle between good and evil that will end with the "Rapture" - following an apocalyptic war in the Middle East, Jesus Christ will return to Israel, bestowing eternal redemption to Christians, who will be "raptured" or ascended, into heaven...

If extremists like Pompeo and Pence want Trump to create chaos in the Middle East in order to quicken the Rapture, they ought to just say so and let swing state voters this year decide if that's America's best path forward.

https://news.sky.com/story/trumps-reckless-middle-east-rampage-makes-mad-bushs-rush-to-war-look-thoughtful-11906088
18 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Trump's reckless rampage quickens Rapture (Original Post) Ghost Dog Jan 2020 OP
That's why the evangelicals support trump. Turbineguy Jan 2020 #1
Just do it already. greymattermom Jan 2020 #2
I have read the Bible and studied it as a young person. redstatebluegirl Jan 2020 #3
Thank you for that comment, redstatebluegirl. Ghost Dog Jan 2020 #7
Do you mean the right wing nuts? redstatebluegirl Jan 2020 #9
Yes I did, and no, I also think Ghost Dog Jan 2020 #10
If heaven is like the DMV then I'm out. Not taking a number and waiting. YOHABLO Jan 2020 #16
From "The Christian Left" website on rapture. Interesting read dugog55 Jan 2020 #4
Thank you for that link. Paka Jan 2020 #5
Yep Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin Jan 2020 #12
Yeah, thanks for that, dugog55! Wow. Ghost Dog Jan 2020 #11
Yep. lees1975 Jan 2020 #15
It's for this reason I'm more fearful of fundamentalist Christians than Islamic extremists. Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin Jan 2020 #6
Good point. Ghost Dog Jan 2020 #8
"No man knows the hour, not even the angels"... czarjak Jan 2020 #13
Then there's the Oil... lees1975 Jan 2020 #14
I don't think Evangelicals really believe his fake piety. YOHABLO Jan 2020 #17
Trump is smart enough to know the religious stuff is BS RussBLib Jan 2020 #18

redstatebluegirl

(12,264 posts)
3. I have read the Bible and studied it as a young person.
Tue Jan 14, 2020, 11:21 AM
Jan 2020

I think many of those like Pence and Pompeo may be surprised when they get to "heaven" and find that they are going to be judged by what they did for humanity, not what they did for religion.

I left organized religion many years ago because I recognized that it was being taken over by right wing nut jobs who did not really know what Jesus would do, they just wanted it to be what they wanted Jesus to do.

redstatebluegirl

(12,264 posts)
9. Do you mean the right wing nuts?
Tue Jan 14, 2020, 06:36 PM
Jan 2020

If so, I think they have convinced themselves that they are the only "true believers", but in fact they know they are not.

Paka

(2,760 posts)
5. Thank you for that link.
Tue Jan 14, 2020, 01:17 PM
Jan 2020

I knew the "rapture" didn't exist in the Bible, but I didn't know the details on how it crept into evangelical thinking.

Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin

(107,112 posts)
12. Yep
Tue Jan 14, 2020, 08:43 PM
Jan 2020

It says what I understand about the rapture. It was never part of Christian theology till John Nelson Darby invented it in the 19th century.

 

Ghost Dog

(16,881 posts)
11. Yeah, thanks for that, dugog55! Wow.
Tue Jan 14, 2020, 08:33 PM
Jan 2020
"Is there really a God?" would have been as silly a question as "Is there really air?"


Just wow.

... Should the more sophisticated but equally zealous advocates of a Middle-East-cum-worldwide holocaust gain sufficient voice in the making of American foreign policy, we may discover that questions about the flux of history that delivered us to this point, or whether the Rapture can be defended Biblically, or the ongoing banter about who's crazy and who's not, have become irrelevant. We could say, then, that the realest thing about the Rapture is that it's an idea with the potential for making the earth into a graveyard.

Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin

(107,112 posts)
6. It's for this reason I'm more fearful of fundamentalist Christians than Islamic extremists.
Tue Jan 14, 2020, 03:03 PM
Jan 2020

Most of the radical Islamists don't live in this country.

lees1975

(3,726 posts)
14. Then there's the Oil...
Thu Jan 16, 2020, 01:30 AM
Jan 2020

There are many Evangelicals who believe that the United States is playing a God-assigned role in the protection of Israel to bring about the "Rapture," an event which is not actually mentioned in the Bible at all. The view that Israel has a role to play in the rapture, and subsequently the second coming of Christ, is based on a faulty interpretation of the New Testament scriptures related to prophecy that requires some deviation from accepted methods and standards of interpretation of the Bible. Trump's lifestyle is proof that he couldn't care less about the Bible, he's just schmoozing for votes.

But then, there's the oil. Saudi Arabia has lots of it, and lies south of the Persian gulf, directly across from Iran. Iraq also has lots of it. And so does Iran. The US has finally shaken off its dependence on foreign oil but the more we can import from the middle east, the less of our own reserves have to be used. And there's nice profit in it.

 

YOHABLO

(7,358 posts)
17. I don't think Evangelicals really believe his fake piety.
Fri Jan 17, 2020, 12:46 PM
Jan 2020

He's just a useful idiot. Talking about making a deal with the Devil. (give us prayer in public schools, vouchers for christian schools, outlaw abortion, outlaw homosexuals, make Christianity the state religion, and we'll keep supporting and voting for you )

RussBLib

(8,985 posts)
18. Trump is smart enough to know the religious stuff is BS
Fri Jan 17, 2020, 02:54 PM
Jan 2020

But he also knows that religion is a powerful weapon to sway a large segment of the population, and he uses it regularly. I'm sure he is rolling his (closed) eyes and smirking every time all them good Christians come and lay their hands on him and pray all over him.

Amen to the heathen bastard.

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